After an extremely indulgent afternoon celebrating the arrival of the Olympic Torch in Lewes, getting up at 2am in order to get to Heathrow in time for a 7am flight was not the best thing to be doing. Somehow or other we made it! We were grateful to be able to relax and recover in the comfort of First Class lounge before our departure.

Once on our flight for Istanbul we soon realised that we were in for a different kind of experience. The flight was very busy, mainly with people who were probably of Turkish origin going back to visit the Motherland. It seemed to us that they were probably all related to each other but maybe they were just being friendly. In any case, none of them seemed to have the slighest idea about seat numbers or the fact that the one noted on your boarding pass is where you are supposed to sit. We spent an amusing half hour watching the slightly harrassed BA crew trying to unravel the puzzle of discovering who should be sitting where, and then, even funnier, trying to get them to move! It was all very good natured and, who knows if people where in the right seats or not, but we eventually took off.

We arrived in Istanbul to clear blue skies and beautiful sunshine. As we landed the other passengers all burst into spontaneous applause, presumably in gratitude for a safe landing. We wondered if they knew more about landing in Turkey than we did, but I think they are just very nice people as I saw many shake hands with the crew and say what a nice flight they'd had which is something that most of us wouldn't bother to do.

We British think we know all there is to know about forming an orderly queue, but once in the airport we began to understand in earnest what patience and queuing was truly all about. We knew that we would have to buy a visa on landing so we dutifully joined the visa queue, along with several hundred others. It took about an hour in the visa queue before we reached the desk and we then had our 45 seconds of glory whilst we handed over £20 and each got a pretty visa stamp in our passport in return. We then had to join the passport queue in which we waited for another hour in order to show our pretty stamp to the immigration man. Most people seemed to be smiling, so we think this must have been a non busy day. Then followed the luggage drama. After all this time we were sure that our luggage must be waiting for us by now. There were 12 luggage belts and we walked up and down all of them at least 3 times and saw no sign of anything at all from London. There was nobody to ask and eventually we went to ask at the lost luggage counter, not just about our bags but about the whole flight! There was one young British woman there in tears as she was sure she had lost everything but no, they suddenly decided that London bags would be on belt 2, and lo and behold it suddenly all appeared. A mystery, but we were just grateful to see our cases at last.

Once past customs we looked for our name on the multitude of signs outside, as we had booked a transfer to save time and money (joke!!) Of course there was nobody there. After much waiting and several expensive phone calls a very polite young man arrived with a sign bearing our name and escorted us to the car, after which things started to improve. We had a very pleasant driver who took us along by the Sea of Marmara and the Bosphorus before turning inland and up into the ancient quarter of Sultanahmet where our hotel was situated. We were immediately delighted by the quaint, narrow streets, small shops and interesting old buildings.

On reaching our hotel, The Lady Diana we checked in. On the wall in the lobby there was a carpet displayed depicting an image of the afore-mentioned lady of which we don't think she would have been too impressed!! We were solemnly informed that, as the hotel was fully booked, we were being given a suite (he pronounced it suet) for the first night but would have to move next day. Our suet wasn't all that special in any case, but it did have a fascinating bed with peach net curtains, and the walls were decorated with lots of pictures of naked women in the hamam. By now it was already mid afternoon and we were exhausted so we had a nap before heading out in the early evening to explore.

As we walked out we immediately noticed how cool it was compared with day time. There was a lovely breeze and it was almost chilly. Being right in the centre of Sultanahmet, the old town, was great and, as we walked down the hill from our hotel, we kept pausing to admire interesting buildings, quaint shops and appetising looking restaurants. Every time we stopped, even for a few moments, someone would stop and ask us if we were lost or if we needed help. It was quite disconcerting at first for us suspicious Brits, but we soon realised that people were just being friendly. They all wanted to know where we came from, told us the directions to various important monuments and, to a man, all finished by saying 'Don't worry, I am not a tour guide!!’ Just a few minutes down from our hotel and we were on The Hippodrome. This is a wide, straight roadway which used to be used for chariot races. To one side a huge Arts and Crafts Festival was just being set up which we later learned was there because of Ramazan, the Muslim holy month, and craftsmen had come from all over Turkey to be there. We continued walking along the Hippodrome with the beautiful, Blue Mosque visible just to our right. We passed several monuments including an Egyptian obelisk and the remains of a 4th century obelisk depicting entwined serpents.

At the end of the Hippodrome there is the German Fountain, a gift to Turkey from Germany where we paused for a photo. We turned left, crossing the main road and tramlines. Istanbul has a very modern metro/tram system which looks almost out of place in these ancient streets, although I’m sure the locals would disagree! They were several carriages long and thundered past almost continuously, always very busy. We soon noticed that, wherever we walked, there were stray cats. They were often very scraggy and scrawny although they did not seem to be particularly ill-treated.

We continued our walk past many lively restaurants and pavement cafes, going gradually downhill all the way, through busy shopping streets until we eventually arrived at the waterfront on the Golden Horn River. The breeze was even stronger here and we were tempted to say that Istanbul should be re-named the Windy City as we were close to being blown away! There were crowds of people enjoying a stroll along the promenade in the cool of the evening, just people watching or eating snacks being sold from various barrows along the way. The favourites seemed to be corn on the cob, roast chestnuts and fresh orange juice and we saw these for sale all over the city. We were surprised to see how many people were fishing, dozens of men and boys with long lines, all in a row.

We stood for a while and watched the many ferries and other craft on this busy waterway before making our way back in the direction of our hotel. Just as we reached the Hippodrome an official black car drew up right next to us and, much to our surprise, we were suddenly in the centre of a crowd of dignitaries, cameras, lights, great excitement and people milling everywhere. It became clear that it was the official opening of the Arts and Crafts exhibition and we think it was probably the prime minister although we will never know for sure! In any case it was all very informal with lots of hand shaking with members of the public and posing for photos and a minimal show of security.

We had been looking at restaurant menus all the way back trying to decide where to eat and finally settled on a little place just by the Hippodrome, at the bottom of the hill from our hotel. We sat outside and shared a plate of mixed meze and a couple of interesting kinds of kebabs while drinking a couple of ice cold local Efes beers to round of a very pleasant first day in Istanbul, the city where East meets West.